Lura Lynn: 'His conscience is as clear as his mind'
'I'M ALONE' | 'It's such a waste for him to be sitting down there'
Former Illinois first lady Lura Lynn Ryan is praying for a Christmas gift wrapped in presidential papers.
Ryan, who travels every weekend to Terre Haute, Ind., to visit her husband, former Gov. George Ryan, has twice personally appealed to President Bush to pardon her husband before Bush leaves office in January.
(AP)
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She said one letter she wrote was put in the president's hand "by a close friend," whom she would not name.
"I was hoping we could get him home by Thanksgiving, but that's not going to happen," she said. "I was hoping by Christmas. I'm hoping that may happen. I don't want to get my hopes up too high."
The 74-year-old former first lady talked to the Sun-Times on Tuesday about the possibility of a pardon and how her husband's prison time has affected her family.
"Physically, I'm not in the best of health," she said, referring to treatment she's receiving in Chicago for an aneurysm. "I'm alone. . . . It is very, very difficult."
Though she said her husband, who also is 74, has tackled prison life with a positive attitude, it has taken its toll.
He hasn't seen his grandchildren since he started serving his sentence a year ago.
"He doesn't want them to see him in that light. They respect his wishes, but he does miss them and always says to give them his love."
George Ryan was convicted in a wide-ranging racketeering and fraud scheme in 2006 that included a licenses-for-bribes scandal and quashing an investigation into a high-profile tragic accident involving the deaths of six children.
The former Republican governor was sentenced to 6½ years in prison. He was moved to a prison camp in Terre Haute, Ind., earlier this year from the cozier confines of Oxford Prison Camp in Wisconsin. Terre Haute is about two hours closer to Lura Lynn Ryan, who lives in Kankakee.
She said her husband works in a maintenance building every day, doing menial tasks such as sweeping up.
There often isn't enough work for everyone, she said. Some days, he'll while away the time reading, she said.
"It's such a waste for him to be sitting down there doing absolutely nothing," she said. She said if released, he could take part in community service.
Because he has diabetes and the last meal is served at 3:30 p.m., he stocks up on food from the commissary to help keep his sugar level steady, she said.
When asked if there were anything George Ryan would change, Lura Lynn Ryan said neither she nor her husband has any regrets.
"His conscience is as clear as his mind," she said. "If he had it to do over -- and I've heard him say this -- he would govern the same way as he did before. All he wanted to do was help people and I think he's done that."